Do Mattifying Products Make Your Skin Healthier

There is a common misconception that mattifying products, which very effectively reduce the sheen from excess oil on your skin, that these products actually improve the health of your skin or even reduce the amount of oil that you’re making. The reality is mattifying products are a very effective cosmetic product, but they do nothing to improve the health of your skin. The reason mattifying products are used is because you’re just making too much oil on the surface of your skin. You can’t decrease the amount of oil that you make with external products. You can remove more oil by using more effective cleansers and toners and even blotting papers or you can hide the oil with mattifying products which work because they are lotions that contain lots of tiny particles and these tiny particles have a large surface area that literally absorbs the oil off the surface of your skin. There are many different types of particles that these lotions can contain but the bottom line is they’re only hiding the oil, they’re not reducing the amount of oil. So, if you’re unhappy with the sheen on your nose or your forehead or anywhere else on your face, you can very effectively hide that with mattifying products but they’ll do nothing to improve the health of your skin or reduce the amount of oil that you’re making.

Mattifying products do a fantastic job of hiding the sheen caused by oil on your face, but do they actually make your skin healthier? Dr. Schultz will explain.

Is there one mattifying ingredient that is proven to be superior to other? I read that the ingredient in OC Eight is the most effective, is that true?

Dr. Schultz, thank you so much for selflessly sharing your knowledge with us!!!

Neal Schultz, M.D. on November 13, 2009 at 10:40pm

@Anson: You are very welcome! I am not aware of one "universally" superior mattifying ingredient. What is the ingredient in OC Eight that is alleged to be the best? And of course a very important question is simply whether OC Eight is working for your problem.